Ney showed not the slightest joy at the great victory. Instead, he frowned and said coldly, "That reckless fool... Why did he act on his own?" The messenger officer replied nervously, "The Algiers Army has lost the will to counterattack. The commander only wanted to take advantage of Mitija being unprepared..." Ney waved him away, then, after a moment's thought, called him back. He wrote a brief order and told him to deliver it to Zhemile.
Once the messenger officer had left, Ney immediately summoned several senior officers and instructed them, "The Tunis Legion has unexpectedly broken through Mitija. This has severely disrupted our deployment. We must hurry.
"Major Aliji, lead an Infantry regiment and an Artillery Company to Mount Tousso in the northeast and wipe out the remaining Kurulu forces there." Well, although there were still thirteen thousand Algiers Army troops near Mount Tousso, in Ney's eyes they counted as nothing more than remnants.
He then looked at a tall officer. "Lieutenant Colonel Suham, command the 7th Dragoon Regiment and the 4th Hussar Regiment. Proceed to Teniesa Pass at top speed and establish defenses.
"The other corps are to begin a Forced March and prepare to take control of the upper reaches of the Sherif River."
According to Joseph's deployment, Ney was supposed to first use a Forced March to seize the passage between Algiers and Morocco to the west. Then the forces remaining in the central region would suddenly occupy Mitija, cutting off any possibility of the Algiers Parliament and their troops fleeing to Morocco. At the same time, it would guard against Moroccan reinforcements reaching Algiers.
But now, Zhemile had stirred up Mitija's hornet's nest ahead of time. Algiers's upper ranks had surely already begun scattering in all directions. This would cause no small amount of trouble